Bulls Fighting
1861/1869
Medium
oil on card mounted on paperboard
Dimensions
overall: 47 x 63.5 cm (18 1/2 x 25 in.)
Classification
Painting
Department
CAB
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Paul Mellon Collection
Accession Number
1965.16.180
Art Historical Context
George Catlin's *Bulls Fighting* (1861/1869), an oil painting on card mounted on paper, captures the raw power of the American West. Measuring 47 x 63.5 cm, this work from the Paul Mellon Collection at the National Gallery of Art Catlin's lifelong fascination with the vanishing frontier. A self-taught artist renowned for his documentary-style portraits of Native Americans during his 1830s travels Plains tribes, Catlin here turns to the wildlife that sustained them—likely depicting two massive bison bulls locked in combat. Painted late in Catlin's career, amid personal hardships that prompted ...
About the Artist
George Catlin · 1796–1872
George Catlin (1796–1872), born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, to Putnam Catlin and Polly Sutton—who had been captured by Native Americans during the 1778 Battle of Wyoming—initially pursued a legal career. Trained at Litchfield Law School, he was admitted to the bar in 1819 but abandoned law after two years to study art in Philadelphia in 1823. Self-taught as a portraitist, Catlin quickly gained ...